A university campus is more than a place for lectures, research and academic achievement. It is also a space where students learn how to live with difference, develop empathy and understand what inclusion looks like in everyday life.
That idea has become an increasingly visible part of campus life at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Universitas Negeri Semarang, or FISIP UNNES, where students have been encouraged to engage directly with communities of people with disabilities.
For Dr.sos. Puji Lestari, M.Si., the faculty’s Vice Dean for Business, Research and Cooperation, such encounters are an important part of higher education.
She said universities have a responsibility to shape the way students understand disability — not simply through the language of limitation, but through the recognition of rights, ability and equal participation.
“What we need to build is not only sympathy,” Puji said. “We also need an awareness that people with disabilities have the same rights, opportunities and space to learn, create and contribute.”
That distinction, she said, matters.
An inclusive campus cannot be measured only by ramps, accessible buildings or other physical facilities. It also depends on whether people are welcomed into conversations, given access to information and offered the same opportunities to take part in academic and social life.
For students, that understanding is often strengthened through direct interaction.
Rather than treating inclusion as an abstract concept discussed in the classroom, FISIP UNNES has sought to create opportunities for students to meet and learn from people with disabilities themselves.
One of the faculty’s partners in that effort is the Sahabat Mata Community in Semarang, an organization involved in education, empowerment and creative activities for people with visual disabilities.
Basuki, chairman of the Sahabat Mata Foundation, said people with disabilities need more than assistance. They need space to demonstrate their abilities, develop their talents and participate on equal terms.
A supportive environment, he said, can make a significant difference in allowing people with disabilities to grow in education, social life and creative work.
For students, the presence of disability communities on campus also brings questions of accessibility and equality closer to everyday experience.
It encourages them to see that inclusion is not simply about providing special facilities. It is also about building a culture of respect and challenging the stigma that can still surround disability.
Puji said universities should aspire to become places where people feel safe, respected and able to participate regardless of physical condition or background.
That awareness is especially important, she added, because students will eventually leave campus and enter communities shaped by different experiences, needs and identities.
In that sense, inclusion is not only a campus issue.
It is part of the education students carry with them into society.
